Offaly Will play Longford in Minor Final

[Daingean Exile]

Congrats to Longford, obviously none of this would have mattered if Offaly had won, but can someone explain the backdoor/qualifier system at Minor level. Offaly had beaten Longford in the 1st round, Longford get back in through the qualifier system BUT are still in the Leinster Championship? Also are the Offaly Minor footballers out now, or do they get a second chance in the qualifiers?

[Bord na Mona man]

Offaly passed up on the best opportunity for a Leinster title in years.
With Kildare and Dublin taking each other out on the other side of the draw, this was a great chance to take the trophy.

Offaly should have pulled ahead early on. In the first 10 minutes they had the world of possession and chances and didn't take them.
They only lead 2-1 after the first 10 minutes, but should have been ahead by a lot more.
As the half wore on Longford started to realise they had a chance and grew in confidence.
Longford at least had an attacking gameplan of getting the ball early into the corners, whereas Offaly wasted tonnes of possession with passing moves that were going nowhere.

Offaly lead by a point at half time 6-5, but the cat was out of the bag by now. The Offaly management were very slow to react to the growing Longford threat. Until the last 10 minutes, they had only brought on one sub and the only significant changes took place when Longford were starting to pull away.

Overall Longford fully deserved their win. For the hour, they worked their socks for every ball and break. By the end of the game when their dander was up, they were playing some great football.

[Georgio1]

I know they are young lads but this was a shocking display, and the previous post summed it up, no attacking game plan and move after move broke down. Plus the frees were bottled by captain Noel Graham.
No reaction on the line to the growing dominance by Longford. So disgusted I left Croker at the end, bought the groceries and was home for the second half of the Senior final. By God that was some injustice on Louth. The ref took the flak, but in fairness what in the name of god were the umpires looking at. These morons have not a clue and are a disgrace. These guys were 3 yards away and could not see it was a foul on the ball.

And now I am being subjected to highlights of Dub and Tipp in the football, while waiting for the draw for the qualifiers! What about all the other games on yesterday who will only get 30 secs each? Maddening stuff!

[manfromdelmonte]

hard luck to the players.
it'll be hard to lift it for a quarter final

still, great to be getting to Leinster Finals

[Bord na Mona man]

Just thought I'd give a special mention to Peter Cunningham who I felt had a cracking game yesterday. He has searing pace and ability and is still only 16 years old. When Offaly had slid into disorganised chaos he was one of the few players who you thought could still help turn the game around.

Too many players were rudderless by the end. Offaly also give away a string of needless frees as discipline and clear thought went out the window.

Pity the wake up call for players and management has to come at the expense of trophy.

[Lone Shark]

I won't lie, this one hurt. Like most people on this board, I've been through a lot of tough defeats following Offaly over my lifetime and this one cut to the bone more than most of them. On the day Longford utterly deserved their win and to be honest, the longer the game went on the more they looked like they were on top - which is a real pity because I genuinely believe that Offaly could have had this game in the bag in the first half. We missed a plethora of chances and generally didn't use the ball well.

There was always a danger that this team was going to struggle for scores whenever Noel Andrew Graham had a bad day because that isn't a free scoring forward line. That's not meant as a criticism in the sense that every one of them tried very hard and I thought that Derek Kelly and Peter Cunningham both did their job in terms of winning breaks and running at the defence respectively, but this isn't the kind of unit that you'd expect to accumulate a large score against a decent defence.

What really told here was that management simply didn't trust anyone other than their starters, and the Brickland lad who came on as sub. This was a game where Offaly were losing control throughout the match slowly but inexorably, and yet little or nothing was done to change anything. Our forwards didn't score in the second half and none of them got more than a single score, the Longford wing forwards were both on top and not alone contributing in an attacking sense but stopping our wingbacks from pushing up, while Smith at full forward was wreaking pure havoc all day. Now I wouldn't dream of suggesting that I know the strengths and weaknesses of this Offaly panel better than Ken Kelleghan and his management team, but surely somebody was worth a try? Our second substitution was made in the 56th minute, which is way too late to expect a different player to turn the game around. In fact with four substitutions in the last five minutes, albeit one enforced, I'm sure Longford were delighted with the way we killed the clock.

I hope these young lads keep it together and that we can give Galway/Mayo something to think about in the quarter finals, but it'll be a big ask.

[biffo_king]

is not cork we are playing in the Q/finals LS?

[Lone Shark]

is not cork we are playing in the Q/finals LS?

According to GAA.ie it's the Connacht winners. Heard that from a few connected people as well so I'd be pretty sure that's the case.